Brotherly love

There is this book which Gooly writes/draws loads of stuff in it. Mainly sketches of go-knows-what and blue prints of the next greatest inventions. I was flipping through it the other day, and found that there was a mini quiz. There were some basic questions and then there were boxes of answers by people who are honoured to have been asked.

What is your favourite sound?

He knew me so well that under Mom's column, he has written 'the sound of violin'.

What made me really smile was HIS favourite sound.


...... it is 'the sound of laughter from my baby sister.'

He really adores that girl. Another time, she was fast asleep in the car seat. He peeked at her the moment he climbed into the car, and commented, "Her face is so cute when she is sleeping.. I like her eyelashes when her eyes are closed."

And of course he has to make another crucial point, "I dont like it when she screams.."

Yeah me neither.

Lolly, how lucky of you to have the dearest koko.

my secretary

One day, my phone rang. If you know me, I almost dont answer the phone every time it rings. So notorious I am for this unintentional fame that people say, "Wow! You pick up your phone!" in mock admiration when I do.

So that day, I was rescuing a cat from a mouse, when the phone rang and I asked Gooly to answer it. He was one step too late, the phone has stopped ringing its "Shanghai Bund" tune. Never mind, I said. They would have expected an unanswered call.

Much later, I checked the missed call (err.. it must have been after 99 hours or so). I realised that Gooly has typed and sent an sms to the caller.

"Sorry, busy now. Will call you later."

Awesomeness! I have an in house secretary that make empty promises on behalf of me, with full of diplomacy.

Also, he has been using my phone to call the tuition teacher whenever he gets stuck with homework. The teacher would reply via sms, so that he can read the chinese words. I never bother much with what she writes cos.. duuh not like i can read chinese. And one day, I ter-accidentaly read the messages.

Relax......no hanky panky.

I see that Gooly has actually replied each of her smses with "Thank you" or "Have a nice day."

That is nice. Something he does without prompting.

Ring ring.. ring ring... alo?

On the other hand, if you hear "alo" or deep breathing when you call me, that would be Lolly.

His Best Weapon

Quite often Gooly asks me, "How do you think your day is going to be like?"

The first time he asked, I felt odd. But to humour him, I answered nonetheless with something along the line of "Gee.. I dunno. I was tired but when i saw your smile the moment you woke up, I thought it was gonna be good"

And i asked, "Why? How is yours going to be like? Anything interesting happening?"

And the wise-o said, "If i think its going to be great.. it will be great."

And he smiled that great smile.

Today I woke up late. Thus he woke late. And we were all late. Bummer! I forgot to iron his shirt. There was no bread. I had to shit. His socks misplaced. Groan.. dare I say, it's gonna be a baaad day.

And yet..he hopped off the car at the school gate ala Jims Bong with a big wave and smile. It's tgif! Nothing is gonna spoil it for him. Not shitty mom.. barfing sister..stale biscuits.

And when I pick him up from school..every day, I ask, "How was your day?"

"IT WAS A BLAST!"

Seriously dude? I dont think schools are such blasts. You high or sumting, son?

*cackles*

OK-lah.. I just think he has a positive outlook on life. Why dread something that you have to do day in day out? That I gotta learn from him.

Random activity whilei waiting for Mr. Sunshine home - Listening to Beatles with Lolly. Coolsome!

almost 2

But not yet..

Here is a list of things she can do:
1. Drives me nuts, bonkers, bollocks
2. Makes me dig my nails deep into the walls
3. Inspires me to punch the wall
4. Changes my whole perspective of parenting- one that I had not anticipated
5. Pushes the envelope. .well..erm..more like pushing me to the corners
6. Makes frequent blood checks totally neccesary
7. Gives a whole new meaning of "challenging" (now it means 1 more second of screaming and I will hang you like a piece of underwear on the cactus, to me)

Ok..so you get the drift. She totally kills my innards and cells and brain.

To be fair..only when she acts up.

Like that day at the club, she wanted to go to the bb pool which I forbade cos its too cold. She didnt listen like ms. Bawani, as you may have guessed. I suddenly understand the whole notion of "listen seven times". I pulled her outof the pool. No more swimming. As simple as that. Big mama is angwee!

She wailed.and I lectured about "listen to mama" - 7 times.

And yet..

"Do you want to listen to mama?"

Nyok!

And it went on to become Nnnnnnnyyyyook! - a blatant disobedience.

And so I did what I had to do.

"Say yes!"

Nyyokk!

"Go stand there if you dont want to listen to mama."

And she did! After saying, "Oteh!"

Her back faced me. I walked to her and saw that
she was twiddling her fingers, avoiding eye contact.

Omg! Whaat was I to do???

Oh come on! Just say yes and we can all go home.

It totally went from "teaching her a lesson to power struggle to facepalm to epic failure.

Oklah. Finally she did say yes. Actually I dont really think she knows listening to mama means being obedient.
Maybe she is just at the phase of saying nyyok cos its syok to do so.

But oh well, I won!

Uhmm..I did right? Like totally.

Yay!

Lolly at 23 mths

She is definitely speaking more, its just that we havent found the right channel to receive transimission. Despite the sometimes unsuccessful but fun communication, she is trying to string two or three words.

"Loot (at) me."

"Please help me."

"i eat rice."

Very often, she answers your questions with a very thoughful uhm.......which is darn cute. The other day she was colouring/contenging a bear bloody red. So i asked, what colour is that? As if she knows.

She went..uhmm....red.

Woosh! Do not underestimate her. I mean her acting skill cos it turns out every bloody other things are red too.

But there was this one time at the car, i was telling her about clouds..you know evaporation and water density...stuff you tell a two year old all the time. And she went..uhm...white clouds.

Wooosh! Einstein, you have a successor. Never mind Stephen Hawkings yo!

But this girl really cracks me up. When she goes, "Look me" and when i do, i am ever ready to let out a guturral laugh cos she is silly and cheeky like that. Just today she said "look me" and when i turned, she was wearing my oversized (even for me, imagine on her) sunglasses, upside down with a huge wide grin. She looked like Pocoyo. *grin*

she likes saying NO still for the heck of it. Omg. She even sounds like Pocoyo.

Did you poopoo? NYOK!

Go wash your poopoo. NYOK!

Why..do you want to have a smelly butt? YESH.

Do not underestimate her speech.

And oh, she inserts sound effects like, ohnyo! Oei? Ha?

And she is turning two soon. *excited* I'm so asking her to wipe her own arse apart from handling the laundry and cooking the meals. Yay! That will leave me more time to make more babies.

Did I just say the most craxy thing?

Hormones a bitch.

School thus far

So gooly is attending a new school. Everything is new. Schedule, teachers, friends - hamparang new. It started with a slight moan about waking up early. There was just one morning that he got up from the wrong side of the bed and refused to go..even after he had donned his uniform and was already at the school gate. *roll eyes* Did I mention that papa was in charge that morning. Epic fail. I took over and he was kicked out of the car straight into classroom.

Thereinafter every morning has been a smooth sailing one. Id say he throws in greetings and smiles too when he sees me preparing yummies for him at the kitchen. There were some forgotten homeworks but no biggie.

He doesnt particularly says he likes or dislikes this new school. We discussed about this and concluded that there are good and bad stuff at both schools. So cant complain much.

Yesterday he came home and announced two things - 1. His teacher is sick and 2. He would like to join a story telling session.

For (1) he made a card to sympathise with her teacher and hopes that she gets well soon. Everyhing was written in Mandarin. I know there were some grammatical errors. It just didnt sound right to say "everyday you shout at children until no more voice. when you are better you can talk again." Oh well..its the thought that counts. He came back and said the teacher mouthed the word "xie xie" as her throat still hurts. I'd say my boy was really kind and thoughful (and will be getting 100 for all papers marked by the said teacher).

As for (2), this isnt the first time he volunteered to 'perform'. For the record, he isnt the most articulate kind of person. He doesnt blow you away with his speech. In fact he is a bit awkward having to speak to a group of people. So I was utterly awed with his enthusiasm and guts. We practised a few rounds. I gave him some pointers about looking at the audience.. looking confident etc. I dont know if I scared him but to prevent further damage I just let loose and tell myself, "It need not to be perfect." Most important thing is he wants to do it. We can fine tune the performance if he decides speaking in public is what he is comfortable with.

So he did it! Came back with the proudest smile and proclaimed that people wanted to be his friends because he was brave enough to tell a story in front of the class. "WAH, ni jiang ku shi jen yang li hai."

Hehe. Perasan-nyer.

But yeah..I am proud. Peacock proud of you, son.

Potty training mission almost complete

Hmm..how interesting. The topic of potties and poos.If you read it real fast it almost sounds like parties and booze.

Anyways..decided to introduce the whole concept of a clean ass to Lolly. We are ahead of schedule I think cos one usually starts at year 2. I wasnt expecting much or any fast outcome. I just bought her the cheapest spitoon look alike potty - those red ones and asked her to sit on it.

And every freaking time she went au..au..au... and she leaned forward with a forlorn face. And she stood up with a red rimmed ass. So I thought that cheapo potty was not comfortable for her royal butt. Went to ikea and bought her a wider brimmed one.

And....au au au.

Same torturous murmurs.

Was contemplating on those really stupid fancy potty..those which plays music and flushes. But seeing that it doesnt include wiping the arse, I was reluctant.

So I showed her some videos on youtube on potty training. She watched eyes wide with bewilderment. And started potty training her teddy bear.

Once she ran into the back room in a frantic mode obviously looking for something. I asked what was it? She actually said "thish" , holding a diaper. Ah..it was for her bear.

And after a while, she plonked the furry thing on the potty and checked for deposits.

So she was getting the concept right. Just not adventurous to experiment it yet.

And then one night she announced that her bowel movement was at its prime and there she did it. A big pile of dung plopped into the rm3.90 potty. Ah yes.. we are reverting to the cheapo potty though the ikea ones are not that expensive either but she reckons it is more suited for her bear.

So we are done with poos. She has pooped 4/5 times into the plastic throne, to date. But we are not so succesfull with the liquid deposits yet.

She announces poopoo all the time whether its poo,pee or fart. Sometimes its a false alarm. She just sits there pook yin watching haughtyly at her nails. Then she gets up only to pee on the floor. Of course..it happens. *inhale exhale.

But a while ago, she said poopoo and I left her at
yhe throne. She came back and said "yook yook" oh so ok...when I looked..there was liquid in it.

So yipeee...yay yay!

It should be soon that we can strike diapers off the shopping list. Fingers crossed.